uwian na. may nanalo na! <3

Hi Heather,

I am an active member of the mapping community in the Philippines. Last March, in celebration of Women’s Month, I was asked to talk about my experiences as a woman mapper in a conference-workshop. I hesitated for a while because I thought I didn’t have any personal experiences, so I did some reading and came across articles and stories talking about how lopsided the numbers were. All sources basically told the same story – that there were too many men and too few women in mapping. Upon seeing this, I had to take a good hard look at how I mapped in the past. I mapped following instructions made by men. Men mentored me, so when it was time for me to do some mentoring, I was still boxed by how they arranged their thoughts, how they mapped, and ultimately, how they saw the world.

After my talk, we had an open forum. It was then that I realized that I should be more conscious of who I am when I map. I started out mapping health centers I have been to (I’m a mom). All of those centers weren’t mapped. Lately, I also started adding breastfeeding stations to OpenStreetMap. In the PH, a lot of breastfeeding mothers are still shamed for feeding in public.

This is my experience in OSM. I wasn’t discriminated, attacked, or belittled. It just took a long time for me to finally map with the gender lens on.